|
still true even though he brought disaster upon the children of Israel. This is why following Charismatic leaders is so dangerous; because even though God can, and will use anyone, this doesn't mean (by any stretch of the imagination) that they are truly spiritual people in God's eyes.
Much Christian activity being accomplished today is emanating from the soul realm of man (i.e., our personal opinions, and frankly our own religious misconceptions.) These soul-bred works have all the outward appearance of Spirit led works, except their point of origin is always self. These works are unacceptable to God simply because they usurp Christ's sovereignty as Lord and place ourselves upon His throne. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." The soul of man is completely dominated by the flesh, (i.e., the will to survive, for food, clothing and shelter) until the Spirit of God takes over and pulls in the reigns of our "carnal minds"; This is the nature we are all born with.
"Holy" on the other hand, means that which is Other than or totally different in nature from what we are. Christians can be saved and still be dominated by their Adamic nature, because this nature is still active in our lives, even after the salvation experience. For example, the early apostles bickered over who was the "greatest among them", James and John's mother tried to persuade the Lord to let her sons gain a higher position in His Kingdom; Peter after having failed miserably (by denying Jesus three times) still had enough jealousy left in him to ask Jesus "what shall this man do? (In relation to John). Jesus rebuked him instead saying "If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee -- follow thou me." This is what distinguishes the whosoever will believer, from the true disciple of Christ. The disciple must always follow Jesus -- the Whosoever will Christians follow other Christians, signs, wonders and miracles.
Those who follow men (no matter how anointed) are doomed to a second hand experience with God and will be to an extent misled. Peter in Matthew Chap. 16, illustrates just how unreliable even the best of us can be; in the story Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is -- they replied "Some say Elias; and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, He saith unto them; But whom say ye that I am? and Simon Peter answered and said unto Him - thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God; and Jesus said unto Him blessed art thou Simon Bar - Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Now Peter obviously felt very, very anointed at this point, especially since Christ told him his words were going to be the rock upon which Christ would build His church. Unfortunately, five minutes later, we see this pillar of the church, not passing out heavenly wisdom but satanic counsel instead. In verse 22, Christ began to explain to His disciples, that He had embarked on a journey towards death; but, "Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him saying, be it far from thee Lord: this shall not be unto thee -- but He turned and said unto Peter; get thee behind me Satan; thou art an offense unto me. For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." What a rebuke ~ in one minute Peter climbs the heights of spiritual revelation and in the next he is called Satan himself. I imagine he must have felt totally schizophrenic at this point. Still, I wonder how many of today's so called "prophets" can admit to themselves (or bet
|
|
